Kathryn Knudsen

Technical Projects

Machine Learning Image Recommendation Engine (Python)

• Builds and maintains a local cache of metadata (~120,000 images and all of their tags, as well as some extra info) obtained through an image board’s RESTful API.
• Uses Bayesian statistics to intelligently recommend images to the user, by calculating the probability that they will like all images in the database (treating each image tag as a piece of Bayesian evidence) and recommending the best images based on this metric.
• Records user’s ratings for each image, using this data to refine image recommendations.

Mastermind Five-Guess Algorithm (Rust)

Implements Donald Knuth’s five-guess algorithm in Rust, using concurrency and Rust’s extreme speed to quickly find the ideal guess at each step in the game.

TurtleNav (Lua)

• Automatically tracks the position and heading of robots in ComputerCraft.
• Abstracts the robot’s movement functions, greatly simplifying navigational code.
• Allows the programmer to simply tell a robot to travel 200 meters west, or return to point (0,0,0).
• Thoroughly unit tested, with 89% coverage at the time of writing.
• Available here under GPLv3.

Flight Rewriting (JavaScript)

• A userscript for the browser-based game Flight Rising.
• Provides a variety of UI improvements, keyboard shortcuts, and input automation.
• Designed to be near-undetectable - even to a statistical analysis of the server logs - by imitating the statistical distribution of human reaction times (based on a meta-analysis studying this exact thing).

This Resume

• Written using Jinja2, HTML/CSS, and Markdown.
• Rendered as HTML, then automatically converted into a PDF.
• Built automatically using a Python “makefile”.

kas_launcher

• A launcher and configuration manager for the open-source game engine GZDoom.
• Designed to manage multiple “modpacks” (collections of mods and GZDoom configuration options) at once, including information about compatibility with different maps and map-packs.
• Able to automatically generate an INI file for each modpack - propagating any changes from this INI file into both a modpack-local INI file and a global INI file available to all modpacks.
• Once properly configured, it simply asks the user which modpack they want to use, and then asks them which map or map-pack they want to play.
• Code and example configurations available here under GPLv3.

Hard Skills

Technologies known (most experienced to least experienced): Python, Lua, JavaScript, Rust, SQL, HTML, CSS, React, Redux.

Experienced poweruser of Linux and Windows. Very comfortable on the command line.

Familiar with core networking concepts including TCP/IP, NAT, ARP, DHCP, etc. Also familiar with the HTTP and HTTPS protocols.

Knowledge of computer science including Big O notation and algorithms such as Monte Carlo, hill climbing, quicksort, A*, etc.

Soft Skills

• Very fast learner.
• Skilled at self-teaching.
• Excellent written communication skills.
• Experienced working with a team.
• Diverse technical problem-solving and criticial thinking skills.
• Excellent time-management skills.
• Highly adaptable and creative.

Education

Studied software development at Tarrant County College between 2010 and 2012.